Back East New England IPA With Bootleg Biology Chardonnay Culture

I almost gave up on the concept of brewing a hop-forward foraged yeast beer. Almost.

After all, my hoppy table ale iterations (#1, #2, and #3) were mildly successful at best; often under-hopped, over-attenuated, and screaming of esters and phenols. So last August, after three lackluster attempts, I took an indefinite hiatus from the Table Ale series, returning my attention to saisons and spontaneous ales.

But since moving to Idaho (the third largest hop-production state), my love for juicy hop-forward beers has never been greater. Surrounded by locally-grown Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, and El Dorado hops, a foraged New England IPA (NEIPA) homebrew recipe was calling my name!

The beer that started the NEIPA craze; Heady Topper

My first NEIPA experience came by way of the beer that literally defined the style; The Alchemist Heady Topper. Since that first sip of Heady in 2012, I have fallen in love with the often polarizing NEIPA style from a bevy of breweries including Hill Farmstead, Trillium, and of course, Tree House. Leaving Massachusetts also meant leaving behind regular access to Tree House, which had been a mere five miles from my office. And while the NEIPA craze has caught on nationwide, I have found very few examples outside of New England that fit the bill.

With a renewed interest in hop-forward beers and access to locally-grown Citra, the stars began to align for a Third Leap NEIPA recipe. The only problem? My foraged house yeast kicked up way too much banana and pepper flavors in the previous three Table Ale batches. In an effort to stay true to our manifesto, I was on the hunt for a new foraged yeast source.

Enter Jeff Mello of Bootleg Biology.

Bootleg Biology, pioneer in the collection and cultivation of local yeast strains for every US postal code

I was first drawn to Bootleg Biology’s open source yeast project in 2015 (when I contributed several dozen isolates, including our foraged house yeast) but have kept in touch with Jeff throughout the years. In addition to their ambitious goal of capturing local yeast strains from every US postal code, I have been continually impressed with their unique homebrew cultures including Funk Weapon, Sour Weapon, and Sour Solera offerings. During their July pre-sale, I was in search of a clean fermenting yeast for using in a NEIPA recipe, and after some extended correspondence with Jeff, I felt confident trying BB99301A – Chardonnay.

With all ingredients accounted for (water, malt, hops, AND yeast), I shifted my efforts toward recipe creation. Over the last seven years, I have brewed over two dozen IPAs including ten New England IPAs, but this version was my first using foraged yeast! Inspiration for this recipe came from a variety of places, most notably Tree House Julius. I coupled tried-and-true techniques from my earlier NEIPA batches with insight from Braufessor’s Northeast Style IPA recipe (both original and updated versions), Isomerization’s Tree House Yeast Isolation thread, Trinity Brewer’s Julius IPA Clone, and Nate Lanier’s Hoppy Thing Recipe to build the recipe (below).

Brew day was quick and efficient on the 1-gallon pilot system. Using a single infusion mash, I targeted a saccharification temperature of 154°F to encourage a more dextrinous wort and thereby less yeast attenuation. After a standard hour long boil, I cooled to 170°F and introduced a whirlpool hop charge (0.14 oz/gal) for 30 minutes. The wort was transferred to a carboy and received the first dose of dry hops – before pitching the yeast! This “day 0” dry hop technique is something Scott Janish has recently written about on his blog. In short, research suggests this technique encourages bioflavoring (interaction between hop compounds and active yeast) and possibly permanent haze (increased protein and polyphenol concentration), two hallmarks of NEIPAs. I added two more dry hop charges on day 4 and day 7. Two weeks after brew day, I cold-crashed the carboy for 24 hours, primed with dextrose, and packaged the beer in 500 ml Morning bottles.

As a nod to the origin of the style, my favorite commercial examples, and my roots, I appropriately named the beer Back East. The first bottle was enjoyed 37 days after brew day!

Appearance – Back East pours a foamy head that seems to last forever, eventually giving way to a bright, glowing orange color (perfect in my books). As part of the hallmark NEIPA style, the beer has a hazy (but not turbid) appearance.

Smell – The aroma is very tropical, with distinct notes of fresh mango and orange. There is a subtle evidence of phenols, but much less noticeable and much more pleasant than my previously brewed Table Ales.

Taste – Stone fruit heaven! Apricot juice combines with peach flesh/skin and transforms into a mandarin orange flavor with a subtle pithy aftertaste. Wow! It’s hard to say if the fruit flavors are entirely hop derived, but it is apparent that, at best, the Chardonnay yeast contributes some complementary esters, and at worst, it simply stays out of the way of the hops.

Overall– This was an excellent first jump into the NEIPA style with the Bootleg Biology Chardonnay yeast strain, one of many to come. While it’s not a clone of Tree House Julius, it is something I am extremely proud of, considering it was my first time using the new yeast strain.

Changes for Next Time– The biggest change for future batches will be increasing the perceived bitterness by adding more early-boil hops (this particular batch seemed more APA than IPA). Since I will be limited to 1-gallon batches for the foreseeable future, I plan to experiment with different single-hop versions of this recipe. Simcoe, Mosaic, El Dorado, and Idaho 7 variations are all on my to-brew list!

Thanks! I left all dry hop additions in the fermenter until day 14 when the beer was cold crashed and bottled. I did not want to risk oxidation, especially with a volatile NEIPA and thought 14 days was not an excessive amount of dr hop contact time. I also wonder if the extended presence of hops aid in additional bioflavoring over time, or if the bioflavoring occurs only within a certain window..

Andrew, this recipe inspired me to revisit our last NEIPA recipe. I’m a homebrewer using Beersmith and my question is in the 0 min hops @ 13 IBU’s which is roughly 8.5 oz of Citra for a 5 gallon batch. Does this sound right in relation to your 1 gallon scale?

I also use BeerSmith. Keep in mind there is a 30 minute whirlpool, so you will get IBU additions during that duration. For a 5-gal batch, BeerSmith says you need just 0.67 oz of 13.4% AA Citra Pellets for this recipe.

In previous (clean) batches, I often omit the 60 minute addition, and only add hops at 20 minutes and at flameout. Since you need high IBU contribution from the flameout hops, I have added up to 5 oz for a 5-gal batch with good results. If you go this route, aim for about 50 IBUs from the flameout/whirlpool hops (and 30-40 from the 20 minute addition). That is my preferred method to be honest, and something I aim to reproduce with next Back East NEIPA iteration.

There is some recent information that suggest bottle conditioning may be best for NEIPA shelf life – having yeast to consume the unintended oxygen pickup during transfer can theoretically persevere the beer better. Most of my NEIPAs don’t make it long enough to be oxidized anyway though!